Pat Riley

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT PAT RILEY - PAGE 4

Miami Heat President Pat Riley offered a statement Monday in a wake of the death of Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, his boss during Riley's coaching tenure of the Showtime Lakers: "Today, in the world of sports, we have lost a true giant. Jerry Buss was more than just an owner. He was one of the great innovators that any sport has ever encountered. He was a true visionary and it was obvious with the Lakers in the 80's that 'Showtime' was more than just Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

So what does Pat Riley think of the players the Heat have signed in the team's post-LeBron James era? Apparently he can't pay them enough. Riley's post-signing statements over the last week or so: On Chris Andersen: "Chris Andersen has had two great seasons with us and without him, we would not have been able to win the 2013 NBA Championship. I'm happy he decided to come back and we're looking forward to a great season from him in the power rotation. " On Shabazz Napier: "Shabazz is a proven winner and one of the most mature college players that I have ever met. Not only did he help lead UConn to two NCAA Championships, but he also knows exactly what he needs to do to make an impact at the NBA level.

Pat Riley picking against LeBron James? Yes, but only in a historical context. Amid his interview tour of South Florida radio stations, the Miami Heat president landed on 640 Sports and smack into the middle of a debate with no easy answer for someone who just six weeks ago shared in an NBA championship with James and previously did the same while coaching Magic Johnson with the Los Angeles Lakers decades ago. Asked by host Orlando Alzugaray...

It was not, Pat Riley said Monday, a typical coach-broadcaster relationship when it came to Jack Ramsay working Miami Heat games in the mid and late '90s. In the wake of Monday's death of the Hall of Fame coach and former Heat television analyst at age 89 due to cancer, Riley there was far more to the interactions when Riley arrived in 1995 as Heat coach and team president, the latter a role he continues to hold. "When I came to Miami, the eight years that he was here as a broadcaster, there wasn't a day that he and I didn't talk basketball," Riley said Monday at Time Warner Cable Arena, after the Heat completed preparations for their NBA playoff game later in the day against the Charlotte Bobcats.

Miami Heat President Pat Riley insisted Friday that his team is not running from the NBA's luxury tax. Because of that, he stressed that his team also is not running from the contracts of forward Mike Miller and center Joel Anthony, even with the Heat facing a $33 million luxury-tax payment next June to the NBA based on the composition of the team's current roster and salary scale. "I want to try to keep this team intact as long as we can, because we have a championship basketball team here," he said.

On a roster that has only Joel Anthony and Dexter Pittman under contract at center, Miami Heat President Pat Riley has reiterated that he sees no need to aggressively pursue a veteran in free agency. "We definitely are going to continue to look for somebody in that spot, but unless there's an injury, we really don't need a center," Riley said during an appearance on WQAM. Among veteran big men who remain available are Darko Milicic, Chris Andersen, Jermaine O'Neal, Ben Wallace, Lou Amundson, Joel Przybilla and Andray Blatche.

For the first time this offseason, Miami Heat President Pat Riley put his voice to the free-agency tumult that has reshaped his roster in the wake of the departure of forward LeBron James. On the day the Heat formally announced the re-signing of forward Chris Bosh, Riley touched Wednesday on a variety of topics in a teleconference, with the Heat this summer adding Luol Deng, Josh McRoberts and Danny Granger in free agency, re-signing Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Mario Chalmers, Chris Andersen and Udonis Haslem, signing draft picks Shabazz Napier and James Ennis, and retaining Norris Cole and Justin Hamilton.

Finally, there was this shining moment for Pat Riley, the Heat's future and all the civic warmth lapping against him Friday night. LeBron James pointed at him from the stage and said that with he and Dwyane Wade together, "even Pat could come back and play like he was in his Kentucky days." Fans cheered. Riley laughed. But even as this sports circus made its world premiere, Riley did something in his first public comments no one expected and everyone should have: He took the idea bigger.

Down the hall the phantom came in a starched white dress shirt and iconically bald head, heads turning in his wake, noise rising, a personal body guard assuring the path stayed clear. "Shh," one celebrating Heat fan said to a few others, pointing as Michael Jordan passed the team's winning locker room late Saturday night. "Shh," another said. The hall went quiet. That's the respect the Charlotte owner draws now in one of his few public sightings. A symphony of sympathy. A funeral in place of fun. What's different?